The inland dangers of hurricanes, the ugly side of charity, the art of the family video, Smokey the Liar, and the entertainers who strike out at Wrigley Field.

1) AFTER THE HURRICANE

Hurricane Isaac has made landfall in Louisiana and so far levees seem to be holding. The worst of the hurricane is in Plaquemines Parish, right on the water, where water is overtopping levees and flooding some homes. The Parish has water on three sides of it.

NPR is reporting one official’s claim there that the storm is “worse than Katrina.” That may partly because his own home was damaged, but there’s nothing to indicate the storm overall is “worse than Katrina.”

The storm is moving slowly so New Orleans will be in the news for at least another day. Once it moves inland, reporters can leave the beaches and streets and go home. The story is over. There’s nothing more to see here.

But, when you stop to think about it, this map makes a great deal of sense. The lighter shades show the location of damage and/or fatalities during hurricanes. It mostly shows that the greatest threat is inland. Lighter counties are the most affected.

The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, based in Boulder, Colo., released research yesterday showing 60-percent of fatalities during hurricanes occur inland.

Poor areas may not be able to deal well with an emergency, for example, if people don’t have cars or the resources to quickly vacate their homes, said James Done, a UCAR researcher involved in making the map. Both the elderly and very young are also more vulnerable. These groups were among the most affected by Hurricane Katrina, as they were the least able to evacuate the city after the mandatory order came the day before the monster storm struck.

One of the most vulnerable states, according to the analysis, is Arkansas. That’s primarily because the state isn’t well-equipped to respond to disasters or to communicate to its citizens what they should do in case of an emergency, Done said. Isaac’s projected path is likely to take it over Arkansas, where it could dump substantial amounts of rain.

Another strange result is that areas with more men may be more vulnerable; for unclear reasons, 71 percent of hurricane-related flooding victims are male, according to the release.

You can find coverage on New Orleans’ public radio station – WWNO — here.

Last year, Hurricane Irene struck the northeast, doing most of its damage where the TV cameras weren’t — Vermont. Today, the Christian Science Monitor follows up on the lessons learned. “The best preparation is a well-stocked store of community spirit – or a deep reservoir of ‘love thy neighbor’ attitudes,'” it says.

2) THE UGLY SIDE OF CHARITY

It’s a fairly kneejerk reaction that when tragedy strikes individuals in the country, there’s a quick rush to raise money for the survivors. People contribute with all of the best intentions because it’s the only real way they know to express sympathy for people they don’t know.

But, today, the Chicago Sun Times is revealing the truly ugly side of this practice, focusing on the mass shooting of people earlier this summer at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado.

About $5 million has been raised for the families of 12 people killed, and very little of it is getting to the families. Instead, non-profit organizations have skimmed the money for their own services.

3) THE ART OF THE FAMILY VIDEO

As we discussed in this space earlier this week, the bathtime videos of children harken back to a simpler time best left in the past. What other options do we have to document the daily lives of our kids?

How about breaking plates? The New York Times’ Lens blog today looks at the art of Mary Magsamen and Stephan Hillerbrand, who document their kids in a different way, one that probably won’t get them in much trouble.

4) SMOKEY THE LIAR

The purpose of the last half of your life is to learn that everything you learned in the first half of your life isn’t true.

5) BUDDY STRIKES OUT

Has anyone ever sung Take Me Out to the Ballgame at Wrigley Field without coming off badly? “I don’t care if you never come back”? Oh, Buddy Guy. That’d make a great blues song, though.

Bonus I: Why isn’t this story getting more attention from the U.S. media? According to the BBC, a group of American soldiers formed an anarchist militia, plotted to overthrow the United States government, and planned to assasinate the president.

About the blogger

Bob Collins has been with Minnesota Public Radio since 1992, emigrating to Minnesota from Massachusetts. He was senior editor of news in the ’90s, ran MPR’s political unit, created the MPR News regional website, invented the popular Select A Candidate, started several blogs, and every day laments that his Minnesota Fantasy Legislature project never caught on.

NewsCut is a blog featuring observations about the news. It provides a forum for an online discussion and debate about events that might not typically make the front page. NewsCut posts are not news stories.

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Yep, I’ve never met a zipper merge where I haven’t been unofficially ‘policed’ by someone gumming up the works across both lanes.

An interesting aside: I just added a “Vote No” (as in, the marriage amendment) sticker to my bumper, and am now more likely to forgo the zipper merge and get into the “correct” lane a half-mile back. I don’t want the folks I’m zipping past to think all “Vote No” people are budging jerks.

Anyone else do this?

Kevin Watterson

The kid is wearing goggles.

Bob Collins

In his underwear.

ajdematteo

But if all the good Minnesotan drivers give up on the zipper merge, then the “merging police” will have won! We must continue on!

BJ

The kid breaking plates in his underwear is more than a little, I’ll go with, creepy. Breaking plates=cool, underwear = icky.

D. Gray

The video offers a clue as to why, unlike drivers in 49 other states, Minnesotans are so zipper merge challenged:

“When both lanes move slowly, all drivers are equally disadvantaged.”

But in order to uphold the highest standards of Minnesota Nice, I must be _more_ disadvantaged than you are. Zipping down the open lane while everyone else is crawling along bumper-to-bumper would be equivalent to being the first to dig into the hot dish, taking the right-of-way at an intersection instead of waiting for the driver on the left who arrived after I did to proceed, asking to go in front of the family with three shopping carts full of groceries and four bawling kids when all I have is a pop bottle and a bag of Old Dutch chips, or any one of a countless number of further transgressions that could wind up costing me my crown in Heaven and/or the grudging respect of my neighbors, every one of whom will continue to believe in secret that they are more self-effacing and hence more morally upright than am I. Therefore I must move into the lane not being closed as early as possible, ideally at the end of the miles-long line containing every other car headed in the same direction, and upon reaching the merge point I must allow at least two of the miscreants lost to salvation who have taken advantage of the open lane, swerving around the courageous blockers from the Anti-Zipper Merge Posse who have stationed themselves in the middle of the road into the bargain, to go in front of me before I proceed, which should shame them into the path of passive-aggressive righteousness. The same standards apply to merging on highways and city streets, even if there is no construction and the merge areas are clearly marked well in advance.

In every other state of the nation, Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Northern Marianas, such behavior would be considered annoying. In Minnesota it is a way of life, if not practically a condition of employment.

Suzanne

#3: How about we all just take videos of our dogs instead. They’re so much cuter anyway.

HDizzy

I understand the theory of the zipper merge but it seems counter intuitive when the lane closed signs are posted a mile before the actual lane closure. It makes me think I should move over into open lane right then. Maybe the signs should indicate that you move over at the site of the lane closure.

The zipper merge is great. The only issue I have seen is some confusion of where the merge should happen. Should cars line up and start taking turns at the merge sign? After the merge sign? It does bother me (but only a little) when the zipper is going along fine and someone from closed lane jumps around to go well past the merge sign. Thankfully there are enough kind and patient people in Minnesota that the offender will eventually find a spot.

Cara

I am going to email the zipper merge video to my daughters, both of whom think I’m being a jerk by trying to do it, rather than getting in the ‘correct’ lane a mile and a half when the 1st signs of lane closure appear!

Jamie

D. Gray, I love your longer post above! Right on! Although, I’m not so sure it’s just a Minnesotan thing.

Kennedy, it seems like you’re not getting it. The merging/zippering should happen as late as possible, not where the early “merge” signs appear.

I’ve been doing “the zipper” for as long as I’ve been a driver, though of course it wasn’t called that until recently. It’s always been frustrating, especially with the smug, self-righteous, idiotic merge police. I was thrilled when MNDot started to try to educate people about “the zipper” (great name for it, incidentally). But there are always going to be people who simply don’t pay attention to those efforts, who are just not smart enough, and for whom self-righteousness is what guides their daily lives.

I have an article from the Strib from a few years ago (the headline is something like “The Jerks Were Right!”) that I have sent around to friends and acquaintances, including some who have openly derided zipper-ers. Some have been very reluctant to accept the concept, so stuck are they in their self-righteous passive-agressiveness.